UK economy continued to slow in November. According to the monthly GDP estimate the economy shrank by -0.3% m/m. Although the smoothed 3/3m rate still showed a +0.1% rise, this was the slowest pace since fears of a hard Brexit dominated thinking back in the summer and on a y/y basis the +0.6% recorded was the weakest since back in the days of the Eurozone debt crisis (June 2012 to be exact).
Tags: Services
We now have the final October purchasing managers indices for October and the data paints something of a mixed picture. That could be seen as slightly encouraging given our concerns that the economic soft spot was turning into something more damaging.
UK activity data for May somewhat better than expected, but this is largely due to volatility as industry juggled with the initial March Brexit data and resulting slide in production in April, notably the pre-planned auto sector shutdowns. The underlying picture is still one of weakening activity